Duke Head Coach Mike KrzyzewskiOpening Statement:“First of all I would like to thank our crowd for just the really neat atmosphere. Having the parents there, it was good. I think it was a great opener for our guys. Bowie State has a lot of guys who can handle the ball. They are confident kids and they can really handle the ball. They like to score the ball and press. I thought they went after us the whole game. So for us to only commit 9 turnovers between multiple guys was good. The 20 assist and 9 turnovers I thought was really a good thing. We are playing a faster style and as a result when you get your shot you’ve been running, you’ve been pressing. We got a lot of open shots. We were 7-for-30 from 3 but I thought we took good shots. Free throws in the second half were a lot better. Overall, it was a good performance. I thought our bench gave us great energy. Overall, it was a good performance in October. It was not bad.”

On the crowd’s role: “Over the years they have been really important to every process because they are us, so their part of us. That’s been the beauty of coaching here. I don’t coach, my players don’t play, and they don’t watch. The crowd is part of what we do. And that’s why they are called the 6th man, that’s why they stand, that’s why is been a great 34 years. They are a huge part of that, they are known worldwide. We have to keep working on it though. They were good.

On the effort of the freshman:“They all bring different things. Jabari [Parker] is a special player and the more he plays the better he is going to be. He is still learning. He has a huge up side even though he is really good right now. And he knows that. Matt [Jones] is such an easy kid to play with. He was coached by a great high school coach that taught defense. You can see that. His on the ball defense is outstanding, it kind of sparked us. He is a gamer, he’s a tough kid. He is just a good player. Semi [Ojeleye], he is a tough player. He’s an outstanding athlete; he’s going to keep learning how to develop that athletic ability. None of them were nervous I don’t think. They played really well.”

On the team’s transition defense:“I don’t think our transition defense was that good. Part of it is when we did get open shots, I thought we watched them from the two other perimeter positions. When a guy shoots like that, two guys have to make sure that they are ready if there is an offensive rebound and get it back out. But we have to get back, and when they had a miss there was only one guy. That and some loose balls. I thought they beat us to some loose balls. Those exchanges with Matt, Tyler [Thornton], Semi, [Alex Murphy], those were really good. Our on-the-ball defense became better. We switched how we were defending the ball screen in the second half. They have good guards. They can get by you. One kid was between our legs a couple times.”

On the team’s defensive spacing:“We didn’t play zone. Our help side was better. Our help side in the first half was man oriented. In the second we told them they had to come over more. We protected our basket better because we were over, and we were already there. We can do that we have the quickness and athletic ability.”

On the team’s defensive strategy this season:“Our goal is to pressure. How they attack that pressure will determine how we adjust. These guys have multiple ball handlers. So that was good for us to defend them today, to learn. I liked their group. They played really hard and together. Their coach is a good friend. He used to work our camp and was a solid Division 1 assistant coach. He is just a really good guy.”

On the challenge of coaching a younger team:“The older guys are learning and aren’t teaching as much. When you have older guys that have played a system that you’ve played, they can help the younger guys on the spot. We all are learning this new way of playing, a faster way of playing. They will be growing; you have to give time to grow. We got better the second half defensively. I was really impressed with our unselfishness. They saw guys, their spacing was pretty good. I liked that they looked for one another.”

Duke Redshirt Sophomore Rodney Hood“It felt good, just to have a good team effort. We started off a little slow, but once we got into our rhythm, started hitting our free throws and got to moving, it felt good.”

On Bowie State and their aggressiveness and confidence early:“They’re an older group so we expected that. They’re a scrappy team, and they had to play scrappy because we’re a bigger team. We’ve just got to come out better from the jump. They’re a really great team. It was fun competing against them, and I look forward to seeing them when they make it to their tournament.”

On the Duke freshmen:“[They’ve been] great, just great. Matt [Jones] played tough. Semi [Ojeleye] played tough, getting offensive rebounds and stuff like that. Jabari [Parker], especially, he set the tone with the dunk. It’s just the first game for everybody. Marshall [Plumlee] came in and played really well. It’s just a work in progress right now.”

“We’re still learning. So many guys can play so many different positions, and we’re just trying to find our way. It’s the first exhibition game, the first time playing with each other and against another team, so it’s going to take some time. But we’ve got to get back in the gym on Monday and get it right.”

Duke Freshman Jabari Parker“It was exciting, getting a chance to assimilate into the season, get a chance to see different opponents instead of our own teammates during practices. It was a good opener. I think we picked it up during the second half, and we came through with a big win.”

On his first Duke game against an opponent other than teammates:“It was nice. I just wanted to treat it like every other game but put a little bit more importance in it just because it’s college and it’s Duke. It was really nice just to be out there the first five minutes.”

“I feel really comfortable out there. My older teammates just help me with my nerves and get me going in the right way and with the positive attitudes that they share with me.”

Duke Sophomore Amile Jefferson“To get out there, our first game, our first step together as a team, and get to play against someone else was something special. I think all of our guys, the main thing we did was have a lot of fun. We have a lot to work on but today we really showed a lot of improvement.”

“It’s great to see our guys doing so well – the guys you worked with, battled with all summer and all fall. Now to finally go up against somebody else, it’s a lot of fun.”

Bowie State Head Coach Darrell BrooksOpening Statement:“First of all, for us, a tremendous opportunity for us. I’m really pleased with our guys’ effort. One of the things that we told them, [we told them] that this game wasn’t going to define us as a team. We felt like it was a game that was a directional game. We felt like we were going to find out what direction we were going to be headed in as a team, and that was how we competed, how we worked pressure-wise full court, how well we defended and rebounded. I think that we passed that test … that we’re going in the right direction. We have a lot of work to do. I told my guys that we played against a team that is going to be a national championship contender. I have a lot of respect for Coach K, I’ve known him for a lot of years and obviously his record speaks for itself. But you know, we came out and played as hard as we could and I believe we’re heading in the right direction.”

On what you did in the first half to stay close:“I thought in the first half, first of all we out rebounded them, which was big. We shot 58 percent from the field in the first half, 50 percent from the three and we only took two threes. We thought that that was a plus. Our pressure slowed them down a little bit, bothered them a little bit. We thought that our Achilles in the first half was that we turned it over too many times. We felt like if we could turn it over a little less in the second half, we could have had a chance to be in the game somewhere that mattered. In the second half, we did not do a good job, and I think that was all due to Duke. They turned it up another notch, up another level on the elevator and we missed that elevator.”

On Duke’s defense in the second half:“I thought they really stretched us out, really took us out of running our offense. I felt like in the first half we were able to run our offense and end up in ball screen situations which bothers me because in that second half, there was that five or six minute stretch where they did a terrific job defensively – which Coach K’s teams do – and took us out of our offense.”

Overall feeling about the first half:“Really proud of my guys. We told them that when we came down here, this game isn’t going to define us. If you win this game, it’s not going to define us. What is going to define us are the 26 games of the regular season, but directionally, I think we’re headed in the direction that we have to go and I’m really proud of my guys for competing with them for as long as we did.”

On Cameron’s atmosphere:“We won’t see anything like this in our league. We go and play in some tough places, but I thought that this was a great opportunity for them. I thought it was an opportunity they earned from winning the CIAA tournament last year. So we wanted them to enjoy the moment, get into the moment, enjoy it, play as hard as you can and then we’ll see what happens at the end.”